And All Things Will End

and War is Hell

PCs arrive in the oriental land to receive a neutral greeting from the Unicorn clan until the Assassin reveals her real mothers name, at which time the PCs are asked to leave the land and head North to the clan of the crab

Assassin’s mother’s lineage is responsible for unleashing all evil in the world (the Oni)

PCs receive a warm welcome from the Crab clan thanks to Domatai whose master was a part of the clan

Crab clan informs the PCs about the war raging around the temple where all of the Shoguns had convened about the encroaching Shadowlands

Crab clan also advises they’ve sold off all their Jade weapons (which are the only thing that prevent Oni regeneration) and Arradon and Besh reveal their alchemy talents which can transmute steel weapons into the swords they need

Arradon leaves his Alchemy Earring with the clansman to hopefully enhance it so that he may return and begin transmuting steel to Jade to be worked by Crab blacksmiths

A gigantic purple storm surrounds the temple with hurricane force winds and none of the clans have intel on what awaits them on the other side

PCs arrive on the other end to find a war in full swing

Domatai takes command and breaks the enemy lines while Arradon snipes off the Oni field commanders

The girls head up to attempt to disable the Doomsday device only to uncover a powerful (possibly demonic) person guarding the clock who sees them despite their invisible stealthiness

They convene in the courtyard for a massive battle at the front gate and beat back the nastiest of the Oni in order to push through and rally the troops to begin siege on the temple

PCs then head up to the BBEG for an epic battle on moving rocks which float up and down, occasionally colliding with one another

PCs uncover that the man was there to unleash Wrath and discover that the Doomsday device (which they aren’t sure how to disable) is actually creating one side of a doorway which leads to the Void though it’s not clear how the Oni are coming through

PCs still have a few more legions to fight through before they can find their way into the heart of the temple where they will hopefully find the Shoguns for all the clans

Arradon claims another piece of his necklace from the Wrath Harbinger bringing the total number of pieces up to seven (three left)

(Besh and Arradon level but there isn’t time to rest in between sessions)

Went to desert, found the Black Runestone… to heavy to lift, so we concealed it

Went to the castle of Blackheart, Darkus (3rd Gen, huge size) was in charge and running the vats with uber goblins and such
Blackheart gave us pieces of our necklace and showed us the Doomsday machine he was protecting
(Besh found out that he’d loan give her a sample of the “to large” vats for 200K gp or a huge favor)

Avoided Fleet and uber air combat
In fleet was the floating platform for the steam ships
Headed to the Oriental Land to stop Ra’Ell

The assassin was sent by her own family because their best assassin previously vanished from the Mouse Observatory when attempting to kill him (could the family have known Jeremy’s true identity? If so are they conspiring with Re’Ell to kill Sarenray?)

Besh, the box Goblin and the assassin became nightmares but Arradon used remove curse to snap them out of it (except for the Goblin who we beat into unconsciousness)

Sneaking around outside we confronted Jeremy and hit him with protection from evil which disabled him (the theory was that he was possessed)

From the fog a Worm that Walks appeared and gave the PCs quite the fight… thankfully no villagers were killed during the battle as the PCs were able to subdue them all without killing them

PCs later find out from Gideon that the Worm that Walks isn’t actually dead and that Beatrice, who was missing the next morning, was actually the Worm that Walks

PCs check Beatrice’s room and find the possessions of those that have come to help the Mouse Observatory but have been killed and kept hidden by her (yet Beatrice showed the PCs the Iron Curtain, why?)

Jeremy is actually a golden woman who bears the mark of Pelor as a birthmark on her back and, using her divine magic with ease, identifies herself as a God Seed

PCs head back to Cox’s observatory and use the new star charts to take themselves to the plain of alchemy where they meet an alchemical copy of Cainan who is gone, locked away behind a seal of some sort that was supposed to be released but never was (and had no actually helpful information, but was willing to teach us alchemy which is neat)

PCs head back to the plane of Iomeday and Arradon confirms his suspicions and theories about what’s happening in the world

Arradon begins sewing seeds for the worship of Iomeday in Freeport so that he can muster the divine power to combat Re’Ell if the two ascend at once and also learns that there are ten pieces to the necklace (only 3 of which are currently in his possession)

PCs learn the location of two artifacts, one of which is said to be able to charge the battery and another is some kind of natural (maybe alchemical?) pool capable of altering humans invented by Fenris Blackheart

Session ends with a giant pillar of negative energy coming from the Oriental lands from Re’Ell

PCs are greeted at the domain of Perry Cox by his personal cruiser, turns out his observatory had a key component (the occulus) taken a little while back… the city of free port was a distraction so that Cox would send his elite and leave the occulus unguarded

Cox gave Arradon a piece of his amulet and unlocked the ability for him to create miracles from latent good energy within the prime material plane, which he used to restore the occulus

PCs were able to then project their souls onto other planes, visiting the plane of Iomeday first to have a few questions answered. In an attempt to hit the plane of Alchemy, PCs traveled to the plane of magic (which no diety resided in, the plane spoke to them directly and was only interested in knowledge) then another plane with a would-be pirate God who had no worshipers and was all alone. Before they accidentally hit a plane that would be less hospitable, the PCs quit messing around.

Cox died while his soul was beyond the iron curtain which allowed his soul to be sent to his deity’s home plane which alerted the PCs to the fact that the Occulus has the ability to “channel” souls

Ship headed over the glass plane and Arradon restored Charles’ sister to life even though Charles was having a melt down. Regardless, Besh convinced him to stay (and snap out of his funk) and his sister was dropped off at Free Port without her meeting him.

PCs headed to another observatory with an unusual problem. A curse lay on the entire building which prevented anyone from dying and they are unable to leave. A mysterious kid named Jeremy haunts the buildings and is the only arcane spell caster, the PCs found a trail of blood and illusion-covered writings which read “I’m not afraid” over and over again.

After duping the captain, the head researcher lead the PCs to the telescope and pointed out that the stars were not aligned the way they should be. She then pointed out that the sky was not the sky, and instead the world was encased in a giant mechanika dome, the inside of which was programmed to simulate the sky but the star charts were off after a hundred or so years.

Here’s what I figured out so far:

 All of the Dieties are dead, the God Killer managed to destroy them all

 All of the remaining “dieties” are in fact demigods, and since the steel curtain prevents contact with the material plane none of the dieties are able to receive worship which means none of them will ever ascend to Godhood

 God Killer might be dead out of the need to slay herself after all other Gods were dead and she erected the Iron Curtain

 The God of Alchemy is still alive since he never became a God (stayed at Demigodhood) out of respect for his former friend, the God Killer

 Pelor was thought to have survived since Cox claims he was able to commune with him but we’re not sure how Could have been Sarenray instead of Cox

 All of the deity planes are still there but completely empty

 Arradon may actually be Iomeday herself who shattered her divine power to exist in the world of mortals so that, after the iron curtain was erected, she could recover pieces of her soul and re-emerge

 Arradon’s opposite probably is an evil deity with a similar plan, and the two of them are literally racing to ascend once more

 Evil Guy probably wants the battery (which is why he’s looking for Alpha because she was the last known one to have it) and if he’s able to capture it then ascend to Godhood he would be unstoppable

 Evil Guy probably took occulus because of it’s ability to channel souls which he could then use to funnel souls into his home plane which, upon bringing down the curtain and after stripping all the souls in the prime material plane, would make him the only deity with worshippers and thus the most powerful

 Still not quite sure how the God Spark fits into it except as another means of power, if everyone in the Prime Material is soulless then the Godspark would have no choice but to bond with the only remaining person with a soul assuming, of course, it decided not to

 Another possibility is that imbuing Alpha with the Godspark could give her enough power to crush the Iron Curtain, but once that happens worship would exist once more which could propel Mr. Evil into power (especially if he’s in possession of the battery at the time)

 The armies of heaven were probably wiped out attempting to slay the God Killer and the armies of hell were wiped out by the Brothers of Metal

 Brothers of Metal were apparently sweeping the world looking for the infiltrators of Azmodeous to prevent him from obtaining the battery, they were just crushing everyone in the process

 The lighting rail gun could have also been used to destroy the battery itself but no one knows why and Eric Adams isn’t around anymore for anyone to ask

Began heading across the sea to meet up with Dr. Cox to get some answers

On the way, we encountered an ocean group near the free port that shot up some signal flares

After a group of ships maintaining some kind of magical storm trapped all of us, they sent up someone to parlay… the tax for passing through an area we weren’t even in the radius of was the cost of our ship which we refused to pay

Ship combat ensured with another ship that could magically fly, two ships on the ground were trying to keep pace and one of them wound up crashing on an island

We barely beat the other flying ship and took some serious damage to the ship which we were trying to patch up

Jimmy the Shiv ran onto the enemy vessel to blow it up but on a technicality Martin said they couldn’t have come full circle and rammed us like they planned since the pilot can only take one action which means there wouldn’t have been ship combat (and they couldn’t have rammed us a second time) so we would’ve circled one another picking each other off essentially

Martin planning to amend the ship exploding to us simply taking the vessel which means we can hopefully salvage some goods and the impressive cannons that were on board the ship

Besh’s adopted pirate father is believed to be in trouble because a new power has emerged up and united all of the free pirates in the area though we’re not sure who or why but we have reason to believe he’s being manipulated by that individual which means he could be in danger

Left off the game with starting the salvage operation on the flying ship we overcame, repairs on our own ship, and then heading into the free port to see what all the fuss over this new king of the hill is about

PCs enter the Church of Iomeda and begin beating the crap out of all their followers, when they surrender the remaining prisoners are bound and sealed off in a room.

The Collector party battles the remaining people while the crew faces off against the Herald, the Oracle, and the Vanguard. Bowowuh is lost in the fight due to Besh’s excessive fireballing and enemy overrun. They go down like chumps, but not before the Herald convinces Domatai to turn on his friends. Domatai almost kills Garret Von Buttsniffer but Teddy lays down an antimagic field before shit gets real. A clever plan by Arradon “frees” Domatai from his compulsion.

The God Spark possesses Theodore and the party working for the Collectors goes back to report it

Besh gets into a screaming match with Defiance, Defiance draws steel then Arradon puts her down (non-lethal like) and heals Besh. The crew loots then stumbles into the captive soulless who were being held because, according to their jailer, the Herald actually does have the ability to return souls it just takes a long while.

Crew finds the book detailing the ritual but it’s half ruined. Poe absorbs the Herald’s holy symbol granting Arradon the Celestial template. Poe attempts to contact Iomede to find out that she’s listening but can’t get through and suggests they head to a temple of Pelor built by one of the legendary heroes where an observatory exists that can see into the stars.

Crew returns Lady Bartel’s son to her (session ended at that point) and reports the church’s activities to the guard along with him.

In Athlanthar, crew gets a request from Dre’s son to take a job. Sulless(sp?) has an obvious disdain for Dre which the party later learns was because of squabble between the two of them at his master’s dojo. He attempts to offer the PCs 5K instead of the 20K he was authorized to, but the crew shuts that down.

Learning that Lady Bartel herself reached out to Dre, the PCs are well received by her and gather some information about the upcoming task. Her son was born soulless and while she accepted that, it’s learned that there was a church in town that was “returning souls” for the price of 20K gp. Her son volunteered but has changed since he returned. In particular, he’s forgotten passwords and become more demanding of money.

PCs investigate this Church to learn that it’s being run by someone known as the Herald (Evangelist) who claims to be a priest of Iomeday. When inquiring about the Herald, the PCs were met with a harsh spurn and asked to leave. The Herald has two powerful assistants known as the Oracle (Cleric 6 / Radiant Servant 4) and the Vanguard(Fighter 5 / Pious Templar 5) who are both powerful in their own right.

While Arradon and Domati are on the tour, Besh sneaks in and discovers a contraption designed to swap the person undergoing the ceremony and another person via a flipping table with while shielded by spouts of fire.

PCs run into some old friends from the The Collective, namely Charles Von Garret and Buhwawa(sp?), who have picked up two new comrades and are investigating the God Spark which they believe are tied to the church. After some parlay and an apology to Besh, the two groups join forces to sneak through the sewers at night to try and find the imprisoned victims of the ceremony farse. The group’s gnome puts together that native to the swamp where the warriors are from is a group of beings with the ability to supernaturally assume the appearance and voice of any person after studying them.

The crew puts their number at about 50 soldiers with 2 10th level characters and are expecting combat upon arriving but can hopefully free the captives. Moreover, Poe detected a piece of Arradon’s soul somewhere nearby which he has yet to find.

PCs leave with Tauben caravan and trek through the jungle in a 3 day journey to the wooded elven city of Hitopia

PCs defeat a 5 headed hydra and a 5 headed pyro hydra, both of which were from the elven city of Dimsdale(?) and appeared near opened cages that seemed to have been dropped from airships

Upon arriving, PCs learned that caravan was to supply elves for a war they were vastly outnumbered and unprepared for with massive price gouges

PCs butted their way into the elven affairs and helped the elf leader Grizland McCullen (8/10th Level Druid) come up with a plan to defeat the incoming army but at a heavy cost: destroying a large portion of the nearby forest

Besh found a seafolk Elf and invented a water suit that she could walk around with, the Elf held a magic item that was a portal to the fountain of life which is why the city flourished… the Elf asked to go with the PCs to take an air ship

PCs made plans to take one of the airships and hopefully draw a few ships away from the elven city in addition to securing new passage for themselves

The army arrived a day early, the elven leader Grizland was attacked by assassins who were easily bested

PCs plan is to use the spell Camouflage and Overland Flight to get aboard a vessel on the rear flank and take the ship